Gary Jameson, Country Manager: South Africa at Eaton Power Quality, says the implementation of virtualisation clearly offers many advantages in terms of cost, operating efficiency and equipment utilisation.
Having fewer servers doesn`t just lower hardware acquisition costs, having fewer physical machines also minimises maintenance costs and reduces energy consumption. Furthermore, having fewer servers can speed disaster recovery, facilitate applications testing and simplify storage management.
"While virtualisation can simplify some aspects of power protection by minimising the number of physical machines that must be managed and reducing power consumption through more efficient use of resources, it also adds a new layer of management from a software perspective."
Jameson adds that while the planning and implementation of virtualisation is definitely on the upswing, its widespread use is new territory for most IT professionals. As with the adoption of any new technology, unforeseen problems are likely to surface at the least convenient time. And, because virtualisation is essentially a software-driven technology, its impact on power management is often overlooked.
"When designing a new data centre, it is good practice to look closely at various critical components to mitigate the exposure to overloads, heat and leading power factor. In addition, users must be aware that power management becomes more critical than ever in a high density environment."
Although blade servers have many benefits for some applications in terms of space utilisation and potentially improved reliability, the very nature of high-density computing results in issues that must be addressed throughout planning, implementation and operation. Proper consideration of added cooling and power demands, as well as changes in power delivery, will assure that users achieve the optimum levels of availability with this new architecture.
Some manufacturers of power protection equipment have taken the path of least resistance and simply recommend installing legacy power management software along with each virtual OS, Jameson explains. While this allows them to state that their systems are "virtualisation compatible", it does not truly address the increased demands of virtualisation. Not only can it be quite time consuming to deploy, because software must be installed multiple times on every virtual system, it poses further management issues because it is necessary to have power management software specific to each OS.
While addressing each virtual machine as if it were a physical device may offer a temporary solution, the most benefits come by addressing the new architecture on a holistic basis with power management software, such as from Eaton Power Quality, which is designed to address virtualisation from the ground up.
"It is vital that the IT team, facility management and equipment suppliers work together to create a total solution that will maximise reliability, availability and system efficiency while optimising installation and operation costs. Fortunately, solutions are available to simplify this process and enable use of blade architecture to its fullest advantage," Jameson concludes.
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